Initially when joining the Impact Leader Village, I had no idea what to expect. I knew there was a level of taking initiative that interested me. In the first week of college after moving in, I was slowly getting to know people and the organization that my roommate told me to join. It was interesting to see how I slowly realized how I had joined a community that was primarily revolved around service. This was not a field that I was new to. In high school, I had joined student government, as well as a Rotary club known as INTERACT. I had participated in so many donations and fundraiser for my community in Blacksburg, Virginia. However, nothing was quite like the scale of the ILV. In the first week, I had done trash pick-ups, and community building activities nothing like I saw in high school. At first, I was irritated because this was so much work for the first week of college. This was a time where I was supposed to be adjusting, but my interactions in people moved by so fast and I was unable to process anything. Then I realized that community service was helping me build my character. Before I started making friends in college, I realized that I needed to start making more of an effort to give to a community and contribute.
As a relational leader during the semester, I have practiced a lot with taking initiative and making mature decisions in the service of my future. During the semester, I realized that I needed to participate in getting my own work done and be organized. During my planning in the service action proposal, I had to motivate myself to find a community that resonated with me and then follow up by contacting individuals. This is something that can seem daunting because talking to strangers and interviewing them. However, throughout the semester, I found different ways of practicing this skill. While rushing for business frat, I was given the assignment of interviewing twenty-eight of my frat brothers. It was important that I worked on proper phone etiquette as well as being able to get past my own personal gripes with talking to strangers. When it came to contacting one of the services for the reference on the plan, I realized that I had to incorporate what I had learned from my pledge process. I sent an email to the head of the Autism Society of NCSU, utilizing a lot of my knowledge about sending formal emails through the business frat lessons. This made communicating and interviewing much easier. My ability to take initiative and know grew throughout this project.
The Village can help to implement my proposed service activity by getting in contact with the officials at the Autism Society. My decision was to have a Village-wide card writing session where each one of us was assigned a certain child that the Society knew. We would work together in order to make sure that each letter was genuine and would appeal to the children. My leadership development goals are primarily revolving around an overall initiative to make both the village and the organization come together and understand their mutual goals. This is rather similar to my own initiative to interview and contact this organization in the first place.
My Strengths Talent themes primarily revolve around being emotional and driven. I am very in touch with my emotions and I feel sympathy for those who are treated unfairly. While our modern society has come to terms with mental disabilities, I feel as if there is still a common stigma revolving around the lack of knowledge about common illnesses. Therefore, I feel as if the organization I contacted truly appeals to my motivation. I am also extremely driven to make change in my community. I want an equal and well-round society, but that takes work. However, my driven nature helps me find exactly what I need to do. Taking the initiative to contact the organization as well as making time to think of a proper method that could appeal to the whole village. This required my own motivation in order to move forward and effectively contribute to the ILV.
The two concrete action steps I can take to accomplish these leadership development needs are to get in contact with the organization and devise a meeting to set up the following plans. These require taking initiative and contacting the heads of Autism Society. The meeting will have to take time and be convenient for everyone. It also could be structured by PowerPoints as well as asking for each side propose their own ideas for how the main concept should be executed. This is necessary in order to avoid mediation but also have a friendly trading of ideas with the organization we are trying to contact.
My overall leadership philosophy primarily revolves around making smart, educated decisions with assistance from people we trust. What many seem to forget when placed in a position of great power, is that their peers can assist them in working through any issues. Some of their fellows may even know more about a subject or situation than they do. I would like many people to keep in mind that there is always resources to help and that no truly difficult task should be taken alone. At the beginning of the semester, I had a feeling that I would be taking on a lot of class tasks by myself. In actuality, I was constantly making connections with fellow classmates as we tried to figure out each challenge every week. It made the burden of college seem lesser and I would advise anyone who is entering college to keep this in mind. I wish I had this healthy mindset before entering my classes. College has really changed my perspective on a lot of aspects of life.